Rekindled Embers
by Rie Hollier
Summary: A sequel to "S&M", set after Sabrac's death. Lost in his final thoughts, he finds himself in total darkness, and hears a familiar voice... Once a pair of flames, now a pair of rekindled embers.


Stretched into forever was the darkness.

Shadows within shadows, a deep and endless abyss.

And in the midst of this unfathomable oblivion, he gradually came to.

It was beyond grasp for thought or expression, the intensity of this alien darkness that wasn't even there… But he was there, and he knew. He could feel it still — his presence, his own self, though it was not like it once had been. This was fainter and, like everything around him now, dimmed and flickering almost to the point of being a fragment of imagination.

….. Is this Death? Or perhaps some other mad forsaken world he was thrown into?

Those that answered him were the glare from the black, blank depths, and silence.

Painful was the silence.

But only for a little while.

"…"

Moving his head, he strained to listen.

They were traces of sounds, all combined in a hushed and distant cascade of whispers. Whether they were really whispers, he could not be sure, nor was he interested to know further. They seemed to die down into the expanse of nothingness as soon as they were heard. Like a fleeting daydream, so thinly-conceived; not prominent enough to stir the stillness, and much too incomprehensible to leave the slightest impression.

He lapsed into the void about him, feeling his thoughts slip away, when he heard from behind – distinctively – a voice.

"Destructive Blade."

This mellow voice with a lilting echo. The inescapable familiarity that came with it. Ah, it surely can be no one else but -

He turned round, and the figure who met his eye remained motionless, and stared.

"- Village of Jestful Slumber, Mare."

The very, very small 'being' of his kind, she who died in search for greater power.

She had her mask fitted on; the stark white of it stood out in the darkness, as though it managed to radiate some light. As such, there was little chance to hide how much a wreck it had become…. The large frill attached was torn at certain places, and he noticed the cracks running along one side of the ghostly facial guise, lending it a most piteous appearance that conflicted with that red-painted smiling mouth. The wearer of this destroyed accessory must have sensed the disturbed feelings it was drawing from him; she lifted her hands quickly and removed it. A tiny part of the cracked mask crumbled off into what seemed like translucent dust, before fading away.

As she raised her gaze to him once more, she said quietly, "So you've ended up here."

"I thought so," replied Sabrac. "This must be where everything ends and prepares itself to be erased from total existence. Once we lose life, we lose our flame, and therefore our powers of existence."

"That's right. Here we are merely just the remaining shadows of ourselves, scattered and left to float aimlessly until all is gone and nothing is left." Her gaze fell to her gloved hands. "Remnants, just like those beings called Torches."

There was a certain weight in her voice as she uttered those words, but in that instant she inhaled sharply and a change of tone surfaced.

"I half-hoped you wouldn't come so soon….. I wanted to make sure I was gone before you came, but I never thought that the Destructive Blade could meet his fall this quickly."

"Things do not often go the way as planned, but for this ultimate result of mine to happen is how it should be. Otherwise, I would not have been able to understand you. No, surely I would not have been able to realize anything at all. Putting that aside, you said it just now, didn't you? 'Half-hoped'?"

"We could not fulfil that promise, could we?" She looked far beyond the emptiness, as though recalling the day they parted ways. "In the end," she continued, "I am still as weak and small as ever."

"What does it matter? It is pointless to continue with that regret. We are the same now that we are both nothing to the world," he said, "And even so I will still welcome you as you are."

"…..You're right." A brief moment passed, when she looked up.

And smiled.

Her brown eyes were glistening, staring straight into his. The same look in her eyes as when she first saw him, although before they beheld a sense of overwhelming awe and curiosity; at present they simply reflected warmth. A rather sad kind, and rather insignificant, but which nevertheless burned with a deep calm.

Still she smiled.

"It's painful to lose a dream, but it relieves me more to hear you say that. I always saw you as indifferent…. I guess I was wrong." She chuckled lightly.

"Those things are of the past. As long as you are at ease, here and now…. that is more than enough."

"I don't think I have much time left," Mare said after a while, "but I won't be going anywhere, so until that time comes—," she drew herself closer, extending her hand out towards him, "—please stay like this forever by my side."

Sabrac took it in his own, knowing neither of them would ever let go hereafter.

Until that time comes.

Until they vanish, he would always be here to watch over his beloved butterfly.

Once a pair of flames, now a pair of rekindled embers.

And it is best we leave them be.


End file.
